To see how much I’ve improved, I’m going to record how bad I am right now.

I know, let’s record a screencast of me doing something I barely know how to do.

Excellent idea.

I’m a big believer in the Pretend You’re Oprah philosophy. You might be terrible or inexperienced, but do it like you mean it, do it as if you’re going to be a star. Do one of the “Before” videos so you can later come back to the “After” video and see how much you’ve improved.

The thing is, no one wants to be the “Before” photo. It’s too embarrassing and you’re admitting that:

You’re just getting started.

You have nothing to show for it.

You have no (or little) idea what you’re doing.

You’re naked to the world.

But it also shows:

You have no fear.

You’ll stop at nothing.

You’ll have the last laugh … in fact, you’re probably laughing now because if you can be who you are right now when you’re just getting started, imagine how comfortable you’ll be when you’re rocking that star.*

So here we go. Here’s a video ad I just put up on Facebook. I’m taking a course that helps writers promote their work and I can’t wait to look back on this in a year and see how terrible it is, laugh at it and laugh because I’m so much better than I used to be.